“A lot of people always pick us to lose anyway,” he said. “That’s what makes it more fun to go out there and play the game — because we can continue to prove people wrong.”

Usually the underdog this season, the Spartans (10-2 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) have come a long way to play in the conference championship game with an exceptionally challenging home and road schedule — defeating nearly every team on the way.

Head coach Mark Dantonio agrees with Worthy, despite MSU beating Wisconsin (10-2, 6-2) in three of the last four matchups.

“It’s not all bad,” Dantonio said. “We’re the little guy. Everybody wants the little guy to win.”

When the Spartans said they are not strangers to being the underrated team, people having low expectations works well for them in terms of motivation.

Because the last game against the Badgers came down to the wire with a Hail Mary pass, the rest of the game tends to be forgotten, senior wide receiver B.J. Cunningham said. MSU had 23 unanswered points into halftime and had at least a one-touchdown lead until the end of the fourth.

“They feel like we got lucky or something with that Hail Mary catch, and we’ve got to go out there and show them that it wasn’t luck,” Cunningham said. “We beat them the past three out of four times, and I don’t think that’s lucky right there.”

Worthy said the Spartans just try to play the best possible football to continue achieving all the goals set for the season. Expected to lose, he said they’ll play with a chip on their shoulders because proving projections wrong is what makes a great game.

“Projections are what they are,” Worthy said. “Everybody can say what they feel, like they know what’s going to happen. If we went off projections, we wouldn’t be playing this Saturday.”